


Lonely Smiles

by The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own



Series: Lemonade [3]
Category: As It Is (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-10 13:29:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own/pseuds/The_Best_Damn_Dress_I_Own
Summary: Patrick Foley had always been a little bit different. Fortunately, he finds the one place where he's not the odd one out.





	Lonely Smiles

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Stupid for You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16811776) by [caimani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani). 
  * Inspired by [wanna drink your blood like it's lemonade](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16984203) by [caimani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani). 
  * Inspired by [a brand new day](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17350652) by [caimani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani). 
  * Inspired by [Horrible Kids](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17411606) by [caimani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani). 



> If you haven't read Caimani's "Lemonade" series (the current stories as of my uploading this have been linked as inspiration), I recommend doing that before reading this story because the world and characters in this adhere to the details established in that AU. Also, they're just really good stories that I enjoy.

Patrick Foley had always been a little bit different. 

As a younger child, he’d had a frail and sickly look to him that worried his parents and attracted schoolyard bullies like flies. It was a rough couple of years, but he always just figured that he was unfortunate. He didn’t actually _feel_ any different. 

He outgrew that fragility rather abruptly somewhere around year four or five, but with his newfound strength came a nagging, inexplicable sense of separation between himself and the people in his life. It was a very isolating feeling, especially given that he couldn’t tell what this difference was, and between the ages of 10 and 13 he prayed every night that he would wake up the next day and feel normal again.

But he never did.

As those years went by, people started to notice that something about him wasn’t quite right, though it was clear that they couldn’t put their fingers on what it was, either. For the most part it was okay. His parents, though still constantly worried about him out of habit, marveled at the fact that he never got sick or injured anymore, despite his recklessness, mischief, and affinity for sport. He had an unsettling, knowing look behind his eyes and he was eating them out of house and home, but at least he was healthy and getting perfect grades.

His friends generally didn’t seem to mind, either. Who could care that Foley (because only his family ever called him Patrick) was “a bit odd,” when he was funny (and devious), uncannily reliable, and scored more goals than the rest of the football team combined?

It seemed like the only person that was unhappy was Foley. He wanted it to be fine, but he could tell that something was wrong and that everyone else could see it, too. 

 

 

 

On the night following his fourteenth birthday, the dreams started. At first, there were no images, just the quiet sounds of a forest and the faint, rapid fluttering of wings. As the nights went on and the dreams continued, he began to see the silhouettes of trees and, among them, glowing spots of light which later on revealed themselves to be people. Every night without fail the dreams returned and grew clearer and more vivid. Foley would wake every morning sweaty and confused with an almost painful longing in his heart, though he couldn’t identify what he longed _for._

This all came to a head one night in April of that year. Foley fell asleep and found himself in the dream-forest again. Some of the glowing people were there, looking down at him and smiling warmly. He felt like he was meant to be there. Normal, the feeling he’d been wanting so desperately for years. 

Suddenly, the beautiful glowing faces turned grim and something scratchy and restrictive was wrapped around his body and limbs. Foley felt himself being lifted into the air and watched helplessly as the forest (more real now than it had ever seemed before) flew past him, eventually giving way to buildings, streets, and cars under a painfully-bright full moon.

He was placed down in a dark room lit only by beams of moonlight streaming through the open window and the blue light of the person who’d brought him there. Foley wanted to look around, but whatever he was wrapped in didn’t allow for that much motion. There was a pressing kind of pain running up and down his back. 

The glowing person came to stand (or float?) over him again, an indistinct shape clutched in their arms. It felt like Foley was squinting at them, and he couldn’t tell if it was because of how brightly they glowed or how badly his back was hurting. After a long stretch of silence, the light-person planted a kiss on Foley’s forehead and disappeared, leaving him alone in the strange room. A panic flooded his mind and Foley awoke to the sound of his own shouting and sat upright, reaching out for nothing. 

“No! Please come back! Don’t leave me here!” Breathing heavily, he looked around the room and regained his bearings.

His bedroom door opened to reveal his mother looking tired and frightened. “Patrick, are you—“ she froze on the spot.

“Yeah, it was just a nightmare,” Foley assured her, too busy rubbing the sleep out of his eyes to notice that she was staring at him. He looked up again, blinking slightly at a strange, blue-ish light that was invading the sides of his vision. He winced as he realized that the back pain from his dream had followed him into consciousness, though it seemed to be subsiding slowly. Mrs. Foley still hadn’t moved. “Mum?” he attempted hesitantly.

She approached his bed slowly. “Patrick?” she managed finally, wonder in her voice. She stretched out an arm towards him, but didn’t check for a fever or pull him into a hug like he expected. 

Instead, her hand went past his shoulder and, to Foley’s shock, he felt himself being touched in a place he’d never felt before and could not in that moment identify. He shuddered and his mother removed her hand. “What’s that?” he whispered, feeling more than uneasy.

“I should ask you the same question,” she sputtered in bewilderment, arm remaining extended as she pointed behind her son.

Foley turned around quickly, almost missing the shimmering blue shape in the corner of his eye. 

Getting a full view of his back, his mother gasped. “Oh my _God_.”

Carefully, Foley turned his neck to look over first one shoulder, then the other. Not able to believe what he saw, he climbed out of bed and went to the mirror on his closet door. They were still there, spread out breathtakingly behind him. Two large butterfly wings, glowing blue in the dark room. “Oh my God,” he repeated, tone mirroring his mother’s.

“Where did those—?” she started to ask before being cut off by Foley’s sister, who’d come to stand in the doorway.

“Woah, Pat,” Joanna said, grinning. “You’re a fairy.”

“What?” Foley and his mother blurted at the same time, both horrified for different reasons. 

“D’you think the rest of us are fairies, too?” Joanna wondered, taking no notice of their reactions and reaching out to run her fingers over one of her brother’s wings.

“I’m _positive_ that we’re not,” Mrs. Foley retorted quietly, gaping worriedly at her children like she really wasn’t sure.

“How can you be positive of anything right now? Pat’s got wings!”

“Patrick, what is this?” Mrs. Foley practically begged, seemingly holding onto hope that there was a reasonable explanation.

“I don’t know!” Foley promised miserably. “I had a nightmare and my back hurt and then I woke up and they were just there!” He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t feel just a _little bit_ different now, he felt like a freak and an outsider. In his own home.

“But how can that happen?” his mother persisted. 

“I don’t _know_!” he repeated. 

“I’ll go Google it,” Joanna decided, bolting out of the room. 

“I’m going to get your father,” Mrs. Foley announced softly after an uncomfortable silence.

Foley’s stomach twisted somehow further than it already had been. He couldn’t even imagine his dad’s reaction, but he couldn’t find the words to stop his mother before she left him with his reflection. 

In his few moments alone, he examined the wings from every possible angle. They were a glorious range of glittering blue and green hues that bathed his whole body (and, to an extent, the entire room) in their light. Glowing specks of blue and green floated off of them delicately and drifted through the air before fading to nothing, like sparks from a bonfire. He couldn’t figure out how to control the wings yet, but occasionally they would flutter quickly, dislodging more of the specks in the process. 

His father’s voice startled him out of his fixation. “Good _Jesus_ , Patrick!”

“Dad I—“

“He’s a changeling!” Joanna shouted, triumphant, as she re-entered the room, mercifully interrupting what Foley was sure would have been incoherent babbling.

“A _what_?” their father demanded.

“A fairy left in place of a stolen human child,” Joanna read from her cellphone. 

Mr. Foley’s face cycled through more emotions than his children could keep track of before settling on anger. He jabbed an accusing finger at Foley. “What have you done with my son!?”

Foley fought the tears creeping into his eyes as he struggled for an answer. 

“Oh, stop it!” Joanna forced her father’s hand down, coming to Foley’s rescue for the second time. 

“But you’ve just told me that your brother’s been stolen!”

“Don’t be silly,” Joanna pressed. “That _is_ my brother. The switch had to have happened when he was a baby, before I was even born. He’s the only brother I’ve ever had.”

Their father’s face softened and Foley wanted to immediately take back every mean thing he’d ever said or done to his younger sister. He looked helplessly at his family. “I swear I didn’t know.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’m so sorry.”

Mrs. Foley took him into her arms, being excessively cautious of his wings. “Of course you didn’t know, sweetheart. This isn’t your fault.” She pulled away for a moment to glare at her husband. “This is our boy,” she told him decisively, voice shaking just a bit. “I don’t want to hear any more shit about our son being stolen. This is the Patrick we’ve raised and loved for fourteen years and I’m not about to stop now.” 

As his family all began to talk at once, Foley was very torn. On the one hand, he was relieved to hear his mother’s and sister’s words, but on the other, he felt sick under the three pairs of awe-filled eyes that had barely left him since they’d re-entered the room. It was very nice of them to say these things, but he knew that deep down, this revelation had changed everything. The indistinct separation Foley had felt leading up to this had, in his mind, just been opened into an enormous chasm. How could it not have? They weren’t even the same species.

His thoughts were racing. He was a goddamn fairy. The dreams, the forest…were those memories? Had he just remembered the night he was brought here? The night that the human Patrick Foley had been stolen? He wondered what had become of that human baby. Foley could commiserate with him. Neither of them had asked for this. Both of them had been ripped from the places they’d belonged.

But...what did that matter? Foley was here now and that boy was...wherever the fairies had taken him. Foley was still himself (whatever that was) and this was his family. His family that was eyeing him nervously like he wasn’t even human. Which, apparently, he wasn’t.

“Can you all cut it out?” The plea was so abrupt that Foley even startled himself. 

“Cut what out, son?” his father asked, awkwardly making a point of saying the word “son,” which Foley assumed was his attempt at an apology.

“Looking at me like some kind of zoo animal!” Foley insisted desperately. “However shocking this is for you, it’s way worse for me, alright? But right now I just want to go back to sleep.”

Mrs. Foley nodded almost sadly. “We can deal with this in the morning.”

Once they were all gone, he closed the door and turned to face his bed and the night’s next hurdle: how the _fuck_ was he supposed to sleep with these giant wings? He sat down with a disgruntled sigh and began moving every muscle in his back, trying (and failing) to get the wings to close. Defeated, he flopped face-first into his pillow and slept (dreamlessly for the first time in months) uncovered with his wings spread wide.

 

 

 

Foley did not go to school the next day. Or any day for the rest of the term. He was of course relieved to not have to face his classmates with huge glittery butterfly wings on his back (as if being fourteen hadn’t been hard enough before all this), but being hidden away in the house just felt like he was being punished for being something he didn’t even know actually existed.

After about a month of this quarantine, Foley’s parents came into the living room, where he was sat playing FIFA absentmindedly, and stood waiting for his attention.

“We’ve been doing some research,” Mrs. Foley declared as her son paused the game to look up at her. “You’re not the only one that’s...like you.” She smiled at him reassuringly. 

Foley stood up, not sure where this was going. “What do you mean?”

“There’s other children,” his father explained. “Other changelings, other, er, creatures.” 

“We even found schools you can go to,” his mother continued. “We’re a bit late on some of the applications, but if we make some calls I’m sure we can get you in somewhere by the start of the fall term. You can have a life, Patrick. We don’t have to keep you tucked up in your room.”

Foley was amazed. He had honestly thought that his parents were ashamed of him. Content to keep him a secret and let him rot away in the house. Sadly, he’d actually been fine with that. Having done some research of his own, Foley had discovered that in history, changelings were often killed or abandoned after being discovered by their human families. But in reality, Foley’s family had been trying to help him the whole time. And it seemed as though they might actually be on to something. They’d found all kinds of articles, parent forums, and a list of schools all over the world that accepted changeling children. The closest to home was an all-fairy school in Ireland. The photos of lush gardens and rich forests tugged at somewhere deep in Foley’s heart, but something about the cold, ancient castle that the school was housed in just felt wrong. The place that Foley deemed most promising was a species-inclusive “all-monster” school. Much to his parents’ dismay, this one was all the way in America. After about a week of begging, he was permitted to submit an application for Monster High’s freshman waitlist. 

An acceptance letter from Monster High arrived in the mail five weeks later, informing Foley that he’d not only passed the application process, but he’d been given a spot in the incoming class. The school had even arranged for discreet transportation from England, ensuring his safety and privacy. Foley’s parents spent the next few days making all his favorite foods to celebrate. 

Packing his things was bittersweet. Life was finally starting to feel okay again, and Foley didn’t feel as stifled as he had immediately after they’d discovered his wings. Following the revelation that his parents had been really working to understand and do right by him, Foley started to feel like part of his family again. He could actually start to believe that maybe they’d been telling the truth about not caring what he was and loving him no matter what. He was happy at home for the first time in ages. That being said, the idea of meeting other people like him was incredible, and he found himself daydreaming constantly about what it would be like.

 

 

 

Whatever Foley had expected, Monster High was somehow better. He and his mother pushed his cart of luggage through the halls of the dorm building and did their best not to stare in fascination at everyone they passed. It was the first time Foley had been in public since he’d discovered he was a changeling, which would have been scary if he hadn’t been surrounded by more different kinds of monsters than he could count. Some of Foley’s new neighbors _looked_ completely human, but he could feel about a million unfamiliar auras nearby, which was a sensation he’d never experienced before. He wondered idly what he felt like to them.

Two boys were stood talking in the doorway to Foley’s room. Despite both looking a bit goth, neither of them seemed to Foley like they were particularly out of the ordinary. They were visibly excited to see him and they set to work immediately helping him unpack.

Foley’s mother leaned in to whisper in his ear. “I can stay out of the way while you make friends. I’ll be just outside the door if you need me.”

Given their surroundings and his mother’s human-ness, Foley wasn’t sure if that was the best idea, but he definitely appreciated that she was trying to be considerate. He thanked her before beginning to dig into his bags. The three boys made quick work of everything, chatting pleasantly as they did so. Foley learned that the thinner boy with blonde hair past his shoulders was his roommate. He was named Ben and he was very clearly also British, which was more of a relief than Foley expected. The other boy was their next-door neighbor, Patty. He had shaggy black hair that hung in his face and over his large, round glasses. He spoke with an accent that Foley couldn’t place and had a bright, infectious smile despite his very intimidating set of fangs.

When all of Foley’s things were put away, he went out into the hall to fill his mother in on everything and say goodbye.

“So which ones your roommate, then?” she asked immediately.

“The blonde,” he replied. “Ben. The other boy, Patty, is in the room next door.” Foley leaned in a little closer. “He’s a vampire.”

She nodded somewhat worriedly. “Right, ok…and this Ben. What is he?”

Foley looked at her incredulously. “How am I meant to know that by looking at him?”

“You didn’t ask?” she admonished him.

“I don’t exactly know the etiquette here!”

“Well fine,” Mrs. Foley relented. “They both seem nice enough, at least.”

“They are,” he assured her. “They’ve invited me to explore the campus with them.”

His mother smiled and Foley watched some tension leave her shoulders. “That’s wonderful!” Then, her face fell a little. “I suppose you’re all set, then.”

“Yeah,” Foley said quietly.

“Text me as often as you can,” she instructed him. “And call me, too! I didn’t pay for an international phone plan to get radio silence for four months.”

“I will,” he promised. “I love you, Mum.”

She pulled him into a tight hug. In the middle of the hallway. In front of everyone. Foley blushed crimson but hugged her back anyway, even though she was squishing his wings a little bit.

 

 

 

Monster High was actually enormous. Foley, Patty, and Ben spent a good two hours wandering around the in the late-August sunshine, trying to figure out which of the sturdy brick buildings corresponded with which shapes on their campus maps. Foley was hardly paying attention to where they were going. He was more than a little overwhelmed. There were currently only freshman and faculty members on campus and he’d already seen countless creatures that he couldn’t identify. The location of his math class wasn’t nearly as interesting.

Somehow though, whenever they got lost for a bit, Foley was the one to figure out the way. He didn’t look at his map, just walked, Ben and Patty following behind him, and suddenly they’d be back at the main building and able to re-orient. 

Through it all Foley couldn’t help but sneak glances at Ben, trying in vein to figure out what was non-human about him. Eventually, Foley gave up on trying not to put his foot in his mouth. He’d never encountered other monsters before today. That would have to be a valid enough excuse for him saying something dumb. He waited for a lull in the conversation. “So, er, Ben? I’m sorry if this is rude, but…what are you?” he managed somewhat sheepishly.

Patty and Ben chuckled a little bit.

“A Siren,” Ben explained, smiling reassuringly. Foley was too embarrassed to admit that he didn’t really know what that actually was. “And that’s a totally normal question, don’t worry,” Ben promised.

“What about you?” Patty gestured to Foley’s wings. “You’re a fairy, right?”

“Yeah, guess so,” Foley responded, wanting to ask a million more questions far more than he wanted to talk about himself. “I’m a changeling.”

“Ah.” Ben nodded, clearly unsure of a proper reaction to Foley’s circumstances. 

“How long have you known?” Patty asked gently.

“Only a few months.” Foley hoped that if he kept his tone casual they’d know his situation was okay. “That’s why all of this is so new to me.” He laughed slightly. “I was hiding out in my house until this morning.”

They were both a little troubled by that last revelation, but Foley quickly changed the subject to one of his many other questions. 

On the rest of the walk Patty and Ben pointed out at least thirty kinds of monsters for him. Foley was also excited to see quite a few other people with glowing insect wings like his. It was incredible. He had spent so long feeling strange and alone and in a matter of hours things had been completely turned around. 

**Author's Note:**

> I was not originally planning for this to be this long or for it to have as many sad parts as it does, but my research on the lore and history surrounding changelings brought up some really sad stuff. Also just in general this AU has a lot of cool world building potential.


End file.
